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aka: Harvest Moon Mineral Town

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Harvest Moon: Back To Nature (Bokujo Monogatari: Harvest Moon in Japan), released in 1999 for the PlayStation, is the fifth game in the Harvest Moon (now Story of Seasons) Farm Life Sim series and the first on a non-Nintendo platform.

The plot goes as follows: As a young boy you visited your grandfather's farm one summer. As he was too busy to play with you, you were left to your own devices. You met a girl around your age and became friends with her. At the end of the summer you left for home but promised you would return some day. Years later, now an adult, your grandfather has recently passed and you decide to take up his old farm. The mayor decides that if you can return the farm to its original state within three years you would be considered the rightful owner. If not you would be forced to leave.

Like all other Harvest Moon titles the main theme of the game is farming, ranching, and building relationships with the other villagers. You can court the local bachelorettes, marry one, and have a child.

A year after release in Japan a Distaff Counterpart, Bokujo Monogatari: Harvest Moon For Girl, was released. The gameplay is largely the same but the backstory is different and you play as a female protagonist. While sailing you become shipwrecked and are rescued by a mysterious man. You end up in Mineral Town, and with nowhere to go you decide to take care of the local farm. For Girl wouldn't receive an official English translation until 2005 with the release of Harvest Moon: Boy and Girl, PlayStation Portable ports of the two PlayStation games.

Friends of Mineral Town and More Friends Of Mineral Town for the Game Boy Advance are for the most part ports of Back To Nature and Back To Nature: For Girl. There are slight personality changes, new backstories for the main character, and updates but they're basically sprite versions of the Playstation titles. A Wonderful Life happens concurrently with FOMT storywise. Initially released on the Game Boy Advance in 2003, both titles have been re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015.

A remake for the Nintendo Switch has been released under the name Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town. Content-wise it draws from both two GBA titles.

Along with A Wonderful Life, these set of games are the most well-known and popular in the franchise. Characters from them have appeared in several later games in the series.


These games provide examples of:

  • Aborted Arc: The Red Mail Box located between the Supermarket and Hospital. Unlike the other decorations in the game, the mailbox can be interacted with the text "mother and father?” ("Where is this place?" in the girl version) instead of a generic "<insert name of the object>" text. It is unknown what its purpose is, but hacking shows that there is an unused "mail" sprite which means that the mailbox may originally have a role, but was scrapped during development.
  • Adaptational Job Change: Almost everyone has a different job in this game instead of those in Harvest Moon 64. With the exceptions of the Mayor, Zack, and Mary (Maria in 64).
  • Adapted Out:
    • Back to Nature started out as a port of Harvest Moon 64. Several, mostly minor, characters were replaced or just removed, such as Stu's brother Kent (neither were related to Elli in 64) and Pastor Brown (who was replaced with Carter).
    • The shift from Playstation to Game Boy Advance led to a few minor characters being removed.
  • All Just a Dream: In More Friends of Mineral Town, skipping the New Year event and jumping right to bed at night of Winter 30 can give Claire weird dreams. It can be about fighting with Karen who poisoned the people, the Harvest Sprites combined to become Gourmet, or marrying Mayor Thomas.
  • All There in the Manual: The townspeople's birthday dates. In the game itself, there are no hints about them.
  • Alternate Universe: Harvest Moon 64 is the original title. At first glance the two seem near identical but aside from names, character designs, and the art style they're very different individual titles.
  • And Your Reward Is Parenthood: If you get married and keep your wife's happiness level high for a season, she'll get pregnant and you'll have a child. The child has Friendship Points you can raise and has a few special scenes, but doesn't do much.
  • The Artifact: There are a few related to the game's original intent as a straight port of Harvest Moon 64.
    • Ann and Gray both have a more "rural" look than one would expect from respectively an innkeeper's daughter or a blacksmith's apprentice, because they both were originally siblings who lived on a farm. Their former family relationship is also reflected in that they share a hair color with each other and with Rick, who was their cousin in 64; now Ann and Gray aren't related to one another, and Rick still has his hair color despite having a mother and sibling with a completely different color (although his dad also has the same hair color as him).
    • Elli wears an apron despite being a nurse, because she was originally a baker in 64.
    • Karen was originally the daughter of Gotz and Sasha, who lived on a vineyard inherited from the SNES game's Eve, and she worked at the local bar; in BTN she's now instead the daughter of Jeff and Sasha, who run the local supermarket, but is still a Hard-Drinking Party Girl (albeit one who's much less depressed than she seemed in 64). She also shares her unique hair color (brunette with blonde highlights) with Cliff, because they were cousins in 64 who inherited the highlights from Eve.
    • Popuri, Basil and Lillia share Floral Theme Naming because they originally owned the local flower shop in 64; the theme doesn't make nearly as much sense for the family of chicken farmers they've become in BTN, as highlighted by adding Rick as a family member and completely shattering the theme.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • Growing Pineapples in the Summer. They're the biggest money-maker crop in the game (seeds cost 1000G, while the crop's worth is 500G a piece), however they take a whopping three weeks to mature. And you can only harvest them twice before Fall, assuming you planted them at the very beginning of Summer. It is possible to grow them in a Hothouse in BTN (but not the GBA remakes), but that has its own drawbacks.
    • To get a Hothouse, you need to have first purchased all of the other building upgrades from Gotz the lumberjack. After you've done that, you need to pay him 30,000 gold and supply him with 580 lumber so that he can build it for you. But it doesn't stop there - in the Summer or Winter, if a hurricane or blizzard strikes, there is a chance that your expensive new Hothouse will be destroyed, forcing you to do all of that all over again. Have fun.
    • Golden Lumber in the GBA remakes. Unlike normal lumber, it will never break when used as a fence, eliminating any need for replacement. However, to get it, you either have to fetch a random and obscure item for Mayor Thomas, pay Gotz an obscene amount of money, or attain a very high streak on the New Year's game. Moreover, even if you manage to get some, having even one piece of it on your farm will result in the entirety of the town's affection dropping every day, and several of them coming to your house every morning to complain, until you remove it. To make matters worse, it will also change your name to either "Moneybags" (in FoMT) or "Greedy Witch" (in MFoMT) as long as you keep it up, though your spouse will still refer to you by your original name. Thankfully, removing and getting rid of the Golden Lumber fixes this.
      • Changed in the Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town remakes, where Golden Lumber is still indestructible, but the towns people won't grow upset over you using it now.
    • Also from the GBA remakes, you can assemble the three Gems. When equipped, the Kappa Gem automatically restores Strength, Goddess Gem restores Stamina, and the Truth Gem displays both stats on screen. Handy, but at the time when you can actually get them (at least five in-game years in), most players will know the limits at which they can safely work their character, negating the need for the Truth Gem. Scarfing down some Elli Leaves or drinking a Bodigizer XL and a Turbojolt XL restore your health much faster than the Kappa and Goddess Gems would. All this still ignores the amount of effort needed to find all twenty-seven pieces of all three gems.
  • Berserk Button: Everyone in Mineral Town all have the same button, which is having your fence made with Golden Lumber.
  • Blatant Lies: Probably due to mistranslation, but in the Aja Winery is stated to close on Sundays. They actually close on Saturdays.
  • Boring, but Practical: Sweet potatoes. The seeds are very cheap, the crop grows in less than a week and sells for 120 gold each, and they are renewable, giving you at least two harvests every week, and up to nine in one Fall. It's not uncommon to make tens, even hundreds of thousands of gold by planting and selling sweet potatoes.
  • Bragging Rights Reward:
    • The gold and mystrile hammer in the original game. Once you've brought the hammer to silver level and destroyed the big rocks, the only thing you'll ever use it for from that point forward is removing damaged fences or flattening tilled land, which you could do with the standard hammer anyway.
    • Marrying the Harvest Goddess in FoMT, where she has a lot of other requirements. Such as shipping every known item, and digging up every item in each mine once.
    • You can have three other houses in FoMT. But you either need to be married for 50 in-game years (Mountain Cottage), or need a lot of Gold and Lumber (Vacation House). The Beach House is the easiest to obtain, but you'll need a copy of A Wonderful Life and the Gamecube Link Cable to connect enough times.
      • The requirements for getting the Beach House have changed in the Story of Seasons remake. It's still mildly impractical, but instead of the A Wonderful Life link, you now need to throw a gift into the Goddess' Spring every day for 150 days straight.
    • The Mythic tools in FoMT, the most powerful tools in game. To unlock them, not only do you have to dig pretty deep into the Spring Mine to find the Mythic Stones, but you also have to find the corresponding Cursed Tools in the Lake Mine (only accessible in Winter), and get them blessed, which takes a lot of time and money.
    • The Teleport Stone in FoMT. To get it, you have to dig all the way to the bottom of Spring Mine - that is, level 255. Getting all the way there is a very long and stamina-draining process. If you don't bring items to manage your stamina and fatigue, you'll probably pass out long before you get there, especially if you're not very lucky with finding the stairs to the next level. Oh, and if your rucksack is full when you reach level 255? It completely vanishes from the game due to a bug and cannot be obtained again.
  • Character Development: This is Harvest Moon after all. Every characters get character development as you befriend them. These are a few notable ones:
    • Cliff started off as a shy and meek boy who couldn't detach himself from the pastor or even talk to people without freaking out. He then becomes a confident individual who got a job, and formed a close bond with the hero, Ann, Manna and Duke.
    • GBA Rick. He starts off as a stubborn and somewhat controlling man who really doesn't like the idea of his little sister being in a relationship with Kai. Later on he learned to be more open-minded and is able to let go of his hatred towards Kai, allowing for Popuri to settle down with him.
    • Gray. Started off as a city boy who regretted leaving the big city. Later on, he began to adapt to the peaceful lifestyle of a small town, and began taking his work as a blacksmith seriously.
    • Kai. Started off as a man with no interest in relationships, preferring a life of freedom. Later on, he commits himself to a relationship with Popuri.
  • Childhood Friend Romance:
    • Your wife turns out to be the girl you befriended that summer years ago. Unless you marry the Harvest Goddess in Friends of Mineral Town.
    • Karen and Rick. If you choose to marry either Karen or Rick (depending on your version), the one left over will be an Unlucky Childhood Friend; if you choose to marry someone else, the two will eventually get married, and they'll be a Victorious Childhood Friend.
    • The Happily Married Sasha and Jeff have known each other since childhood. Sasha would protect Jeff from Duke.
  • Deliberately Monochrome: Flashbacks are always in sepia. This is so you can't see the hair color of the girl you met all those years ago, in order to make it seem like it could have been any of the bachelorettes.
  • Disc-One Nuke: In BTN the first mines are just a few steps away from the hot springs bath, which restores both stamina and fatigue fully within 1 hour of in-game time. This means you never have to sleep, and the short trip to the mines makes it easy to get several thousand G (in-game currency) by the second day.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The girl version of Harvest Moon Back to Nature is the only Harvest Moon girl version game where the bachelor proposes to you. Later game always have the playable female character proposes to the bachelor with a Blue Feather. Interestingly, this feature was added in later games as a secret. Once secret conditions are met in some of the more recent games, the bachelor/bachelorette would instead propose to you. While it fits as this, it's also ahead of its time in a sense.
  • Easter Egg / Jump Scare: In Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town, if you enter your house at EXACTLY midnight (0:00) and examine the mirror (assuming you've bought it), you will hear a loud * THUNK* from somewhere in your house, and your character will look around in surprise. Alternatively, sometimes you will see the image of the kappa pop out of the mirror for a moment, making your character jump back in surprise.
  • Foul Medicine: The Doctor's Black and Purple heart events involve the Doctor offering the farmer to try some new medicines that supposedly restore strength and alleviate fatigue at the same time. In the first test, the farmer finds the medicine's taste disgusting, but reluctantly admits that it is effective. The second one is so bad that it causes the farmer to pass out. After this, the Doctor agrees to stop asking the farmer to be a guinea pig for his incomplete medicines.
  • Fractured Fairytale: One of Carter's sermons is Snow White, except the Mirror lies and tells the Queen that she's the prettiest, in order to protect Snow's life.
  • "Freaky Friday" Flip: The plot of a in-universe television show in Friends of Mineral Town named "Aaron Changes," where the titular character and the similarly named Erin switch bodies. The two are forced to endure their new forms in high school. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Game-Breaking Bug:
    • The PAL version of Back To Nature cannot be advanced past your new bride picking your nickname.
    • It's possible to get stuck in an endless loading screen if you don't upgrade your house to second level once you exit from it at the beginning of the first summer. The only known workaround is to get as much money/lumbers as you can in spring and upgrade your house as soon as possible.
  • Game Mod: The True Love Edition mods of FoMT and MFoMT, which allow Pete to date the bachelors and Claire to date the bachelorettes, were produced by fans to great acclaim after it came out that a lot of people were using the cross-presentation-friendly Character Customization in ANB to keep from having to choose between their gender and their sexual orientation.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Some of the Doctor's cutscene dialogue in BTN: For Girl don't really match up with what is actually happening in game.
    • Just before leaving the town, Doctor confesses to Carter about feeling useless because most of his patients are pregnant mothers, and Elli can help deliver the babies without him, since the Doctor is not trained in midwifery. We never see any pregnant mothers or their newborn babies.
    • Another cutscene has Elli scold the Doctor for shopping on credit from the Supermarket. The Doctor sheepishly admits that he can't stop himself from buying some bread, which he says is his weakness. However, bread is not actually his favorite, or even one of his liked, items.
  • The Ghost: Lillia's husband and Manna's daughter are mentioned but never shown on-screen.
  • Gonk: Gourmet, the ugly, egg-shaped judge of the food contests. Many are disturbed that you could actually marry and have a baby with him in More Friends of Mineral Town. The fanbase almost universally considers him and Kappa (from the same game) to be most unattractive potential spouses in the entire series
  • Guide Dang It!: Good luck finding out all the cooking recipes, characters' likes/dislikes, or how to activate certain events on your own.
  • Heroic Mime: Played with. Your character only talks to him/herself, and only during cutscenes. Other than that, your character does not talk directly to NPCs at all, aside from giving preset responses to questions. It's even lampshaded in a certain conversation with Manna.
    Manna: Of course I listen to others... it's just that you don't speak so I have to do all the talking!
  • Interspecies Romance: You can opt to marry the Kappa in More Friends of Mineral Town. And have his child.
  • Lighter and Softer:
    • While still not as fluffy as its art style would make you think, it's a big leap from 64. Many of the darker elements were removed or softened up.
    • Even between PS1 to GBA this happened. The darker or maturer themes were towned down heavily or outright removed. Cliff for example is implied to the suicidal in BTN but is far less depressed in FOMT.
  • Like a Son to Me: Duke and Manna say that their young employee Cliff is like a son to them. He's filled a space in their hearts that's been missing since their daughter Aja left. Duke even wants Cliff to inherit the winery when he and Manna retire.
  • Maligned Mixed Marriage: Implied that marrying the Kappa in More Friends of Mineral Town is this, given Carter's shocked and horrified reaction when you request for permission to marry him. Nobody else is ever made aware of your marriage to the Kappa, though; when the PC inexplicably becomes pregnant, it seems that everyone assumes she's still single and by an out-of-wedlock affair (hence the Doctor's and Elli's lukewarm reactions to her showing up pregnant, and alone, at the clinic). Things are probably better that way.
  • Meal Ticket: The Kappa in More Friends of Mineral Town never once expresses any actual feelings for the player character, even when married... it's implied that he only agrees to marry her so he can have more cucumbers.
  • Money for Nothing: Most expensive things you can buy: Makers and Hothouse. Best ways to acquire much money: Makers and Hothouse. At least the Hothouse isn't as game breaking as it was in Harvest Moon 64. Unfortunately, the Hothouse is not available in the GBA remakes.
  • Multiple-Choice Past: In Back To Nature your childhood friend will always be your wife. Likewise in the girl version your husband will always be the man who saved you.
  • Multiple Endings: You can get one of two endings depending on how well you've kept up the farm.
    • If your farm is at 30% or higher, Thomas will agree to let you stay in the village. You will also find out that your wife was the girl from your childhood. The credits will roll, showing the villagers with cheerful expressions. You can also continue playing your file.
    • If your farm is below 30%, Thomas will tell you that you need to leave the village. The credits will roll, but this time the villagers will have Death Glares. In addition, your game will end right then and there, and you can no longer continue that file, so it doubles as a Non-Standard Game Over.
  • Non-Standard Game Over:
    • The bad ending, as mentioned above, will end your game immediately, and make the file permanently unplayable until you delete it and start all over.
    • Getting married as a girl in the Playstation and PSP versions will end your game on your wedding day. You will see a cutscene revealing that your new husband was the man who saved your life at the beginning of the game, then your character will say "Life is like a festival" as the game cuts to the credits. The file then becomes permanently unplayable until deleted. Averted in MFoMT, as you can continue playing after getting married.
  • Not as You Know Them: Though the designs are the same many character personalities, roles, and families changed drastically between 64 and BTN. They're barely the same characters.
  • Parental Bonus:
    • When Zack delivers the large bed to you, he wonders out loud what you're going to do with a bed that big. He does so with a large toothy grin.
    • One of Anna's lines about her husband:
    Anna: Basil won't play with me... Hmph!
  • Permanently Missable Content:
    • In BTN, chocolate can only be obtained from bachelorettes during the Winter Thanksgiving, and only if their affection is at a purple or blue heart (any higher, and they give you chocolate cake instead). If you don't get at least two pieces before the bachelorettes get married, the recipes for chocolate cake and chocolate cookies will remain permanently locked.
    • Also in BTN, if you insist on cutting the lone cedar tree on the side of Mother's Hill with an Ax after the tree begged for you to not do so, Gotz will suddenly appear and scold you. At this point, you can never get the Power Berry from the cedar tree unless you have a save file from last night and load the game.
    • The Wii U ports of FoMT and MFoMT does not allow players to obtain the Beach House, Record player or meeting Van and Ruby due to requiring the GBA game be connected to the Gamecube.
    • The Teleport Stone in FoMT does not spawn if you reach level 255 of the Spring Mine with a full rucksack. If that happens, it permanently vanishes from the game and cannot be re-obtained unless you reload the save.
  • Poison Mushroom: Red grass and poisonous mushrooms, which lower your stamina if consumed. They are actually subversions of the trope as their main purpose is to be sold for money. However, they can also be used as optional ingredients in some dishes, and the negative effects will carry over.
  • Related in the Adaptation: Many of the relationships have been changed around compared to Harvest Moon 64
    • Karen used to be Sasha's and Gotz's daughter; however, in Back To Nature her father became Jeff, who was originally Elli's father figure (and love interest). Gotz is now a widower.
    • Stu is Elli's little brother in Back To Nature. Originally he was unrelated. His brother in 64, Kent, is just not present.
    • Rick was originally Gray's and Ann's cousin. In Back To Nature he is Popuri's older brother instead, despite still looking related to Ann (they're both redheaded while Popuri has pink hair).
  • Same Character, But Different: The game uses the same character from Harvest Moon 64 but they have completely different personalities, back-stories, and relationship. They also all reside in a different village entirely (Mineral Town instead of Flowerbud Village).
  • Show Within a Show: In Friends of Mineral Town, you can sometimes catch a unique show that airs on a different day of the week. (As the Weather, News, and Farm Life channels are fixed.) The schedule is as follows:
    • Sunday: My Dear Princess; A serial about the titular Princess Protagonist.
    • Monday: Fishing Hour; A show that gives advice on catching certain fish in the game.
    • Tuesday: Dueling Chefs; A cook-off between two chefs that can also teach you new recipes.
    • Wednesday: Aaron Changes; A serial where a boy named Aaron and a girl named Erin accidentally swapped bodies.
    • Thursday: Star Lily, Bandit Girl; The show stars a detective that is on the hunt of the aforementioned bandit.
    • Friday: Mechabot Ultror Fights Again A Sentai-esque series that is for entertainment once again.
    • Saturday: TV Shopping: A show where you can order things, which is the most crucial channel you will need to watch to progress in the game.
      • Once you purchased every item, it will play St. Emerald Academy afterwards. Which is named in The Place style, being an anthology series about a different girl in the titular academy.
  • Suddenly Voiced: Characters are not voiced in these games, not even Voice Grunting. Despite this, during the Music Festival in Back to Nature Karen will sing.
  • Super-Deformed: The character portraits have them normally but the in-game designs are chibi, most likely due to hardware limitations.
  • Tall Poppy Syndrome: In the remakes, the villagers absolutely hate seeing a farmer who builds a fence out of Golden Lumber, an expensive and hard-to-get material.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass:
    • Kappa was a friendly water imp in the Harvest Moon 64 game. However, in BTN and FoMT, he is an ungrateful recluse who only talks when given cucumbers, and only to simply tell the player to leave him alone. It's possible to marry him in MFoMT, but not only does he never express any feelings for you, he won't even move into your house after your wedding day.
    • Kai goes from a kind and friendly Vineyard worker in 64 to a Smug Snake who actively torments Rick in BTN. His jerkass personality is more toned down in FoMT as stated above, though his affection towards Popuri still manages to get on Rick's nerves.
    • Speaking of Rick, he was a kind and meek inventor in 64. In BTN and FoMT, he becomes Popuri's rude and overly protective big brother who actively imposes his beliefs and will onto others, and gets mad at anyone who disagrees with him - even Karen, his love interest. Doubly so in regards to Kai, whom he also absolutely forbids Popuri from going out with.
    • Duke was a caring bartender who often worried over his customers' health in 64. In BTN and FoMT, he becomes a bully who torments and steals from Jeff, harasses Kai, and neglects his own work at home. However, he later makes up for his mistreatment of Jeff, and pays back his debts.
    • The Harvest Goddess, changed from a kind and friendly spirit to a lazy jerk who abandons Forget-Me-Not Valley (implied to be the same goddess).
  • Took a Level in Kindness:
    • Gotz is less of a jerkass than he was in Harvest Moon 64. This time he is more of loner that opens up to you.
    • Downplayed with Kai in FoMT, whose interactions with Rick are more amiable than in BTN, but he nonetheless manages to annoy Rick anyway due to his overbearing protection of Popuri.
  • Unrelated in the Adaptation:
    • Your Grandfather from 64 and Back to Nature is just an elderly man you've befriended in Friends of Mineral Town.
    • Aside from Ellen, none of the characters from 64 are referenced and thus it's vague if they're still related.
    • Gotz is a widower. Sasha isn't his wife like in SNES, and Karen isn't his daughter.
    • Rick is Popuri's brother, not Ann and Gray's cousin. Also, Ann and Gray are completely unrelated.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: Multiple:
    • Red grass and poisonous mushrooms can be added to certain food recipes, and the negative effects will carry over. Obviously this makes the resulting food completely useless to you as you cannot sell it and you'd have to be pretty stupid to eat it. However, what you can do is give it to a villager. They won't even know the difference from the normal version of the dish.
    • You can add just about anything to the giant pot of stew during the Harvest Festival. Not just crops or food dishes, but also bizarre stuff like rocks, flowers, ores, garbage, and even the above-mentioned poisonous items. If you're feeling particularly cruel, you can even add animals to it, such as chickens, wild squirrels or rabbits, and even your own dog. Fortunately, if you put one of your own animals in there, they'll survive somehow. You can recover them at Rose Square the next day, although their affection will have dropped as a result of your cruelty.
  • Video Game Cruelty Punishment / What the Hell, Player?: There is almost no act of cruelty in these games that goes unpunished or without someone yelling at you for it:
    • Giving a villager a gift that they hate will result in them complaining about it, and you'll get hit with an appropriately-sized penalty to your popularity with that villager - even more so if the gift was wrapped or given to them as a birthday present.
    • If one of your livestock gets sick and dies, you will hold a funeral for it the next day, and either Rick or Barley (depending on what animal died) will be there to chew you out for your lack of care. Your popularity with the villagers will also decrease across the board.
    • In the GBA remakes, using the already hard to obtain Golden Lumber as a fence will result in your popularity with the villagers decreasing every day, and several of them coming to your farm with Mayor Thomas every morning to complain. Even the Gourmet from the Cooking Festival and the Harvest Goddess herself will object to you using it. On top of this, you will be renamed "Moneybags" or "Greedy Witch" (depending on your gender) as long as it stays up, though your spouse will continue to use your original name. These effects fortunately stop once you remove and dispose of the lumber.
      • Changed in the Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town remake. Golden Lumber is still indestructible, but no one grows angry at you over using it. Mayor Thomas even points out that no one will get mad at you anymore.
    • You can choose not to tell Cliff about the job at Duke's winery. If you don't tell him, he'll run out of money and leave Mineral Town for good a week later. Doubly cruel if you don't want to marry Ann or you're playing the Distaff Counterpart.
    • Your invisible Karma Meter will rise for every time you litter around the village (except the mining area or your own farm). The more you litter, the higher the possibility of receiving useless garbage while fishing. More importantly, however, it increases the likelihood of a hurricane or snowstorm coming and devastating your farm (and hothouse). Fortunately this can be fixed by confessing in the church before the damage become too much to handle. Depending on how deep your sin is, you may need to confess more than once and repent seriously.
    • If you already got a Power Berry from the lone cedar tree on the side of Mother's Hill and still try to cut it with an Ax, you will immediately pass out regardless of stamina and fatigue. The same thing will happen if you continue to throw cucumbers into Mother's Hill Lake after receiving the Mystic Berry from Kappa.
  • Video Game Remake: The Mineral Town games to Back To Nature. Unusually, the graphics take something of a downgrade, going from 3D models to sprites, though arguably the GBA games have aged better.

Alternative Title(s): Harvest Moon Mineral Town, Harvest Moon Friends Of Mineral Town, Harvest Moon More Friends Of Mineral Town

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